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Migraines

First of all, I love the site. I find every articles and threads that I get to read here really informative.

My concern is, before pregnancy it is not uncommon for my wife to have a migraine. I can say that she is dependent to headache relievers, Advils and the like. Now that she is pregnant and is not allowed to consume headache pills. Is there a way that she can be relieved when having headaches? Is there an alternative that is allowed to be consumed by a pregnant woman? If there isn't, is there an effective alternative to ease her head pains?

The first thing I would do is try to figure out what is causing the migraines, because headaches are not "normal". They can be managed with medications, but the root cause can cause problems in overall health if not addressed and corrected.

So... here's what I would do. The first thing I would do is I would get a gallon of distilled water (or pure water if distilled isn't available) and I would have that on hand so that at the first sign of a headache, I would drink as much of that water as I could possibly get down within 60 minutes. It can be dangerous to drink large amounts of water throughout the day, but it's VERY helpful to drink all you can within an hour.

The benefits of doing this is that it helps to flush the liver and kidneys of toxins. The liver works to separate the toxins (waste) from the nutrients. The nutrients are used to nourish your baby and create bone, skin, blood, hair, etc. The waste is meant to be excreted from the body.

When the liver is overloaded it can cause nausea, sluggishness (tired) and much, much more. When the body can't move toxins out quickly enough, the toxins stay in the body too long and cause lots of problems. Constipation means toxins are not being moved out quickly enough.

Drinking as much water as possible in an hour's time will help to move toxins out through the kidneys/urine and can relieve the body of waste which could be contributing to the headache. It will also help to hydrate the bowels making it easier to have a bowel movement.

Medications like Advil are not only hard on the liver, but they can also cause constipation.

It sounds to me like your wife would benefit from a very gentle cleanse. The problem is, we don't want to do a strong cleanse when we're pregnant, because the baby is then exposed to toxins that are moved out of the tissues and into the blood before it is excreted from the body.

However, there are some very gentle cleansing things you can do to start the process. Drinking plenty of pure water every day is going to be super important to keep the bowels moving (no constipation). Your wife could squeeze 1/2 of a fresh lemon into a glass of water every morning and drink that. Many women who experience nausea enjoy the taste of lemon water. I know that it helped me with my nausea during my first pregnancy. I would sit on the couch and sip on lemon water. I'm sure that my body was happy with the affect of the lemon on my liver. I just wish someone had told me about it earlier because the nausea subsided about a month after I started it.

Drinking water throughout the day is really important. To make it easier your wife can place glasses of water around the house or at her desk so that no matter where she is, when she sees the water she will be reminded to drink - pardon me for a moment while I take a sip of my water... okay, I'm back :-)

Chlorophyll is wonderful at helping to take some stress off the liver, for increasing iron levels, and for keeping those bowels moving well. Towards the end of my last 2 pregnancies, I was anemic so my midwife suggested I start taking liquid chlorophyll. It worked both times! Chlorophyll is gentle on the stomach and has so many benefits. You can even make your own by juicing wheat grass or other kinds of grass, or by juicing deep leafy greens like spinach.

Green smoothies are especially tasty and help you to get lots of good chlorophyll as well. In fact I just put a video on your other thread where you asked about alternatives for the iron supplements your doctor prescribed for your wife. Be sure to take a look at that.

And if your wife really needs a pain killer while she's pregnant, you will probably want to take something like Tylenol rather than Advil.

According to a study published in the August 16, 2003 British Medical Journal, women who take ibuprofen (i.e. Motrin, Advil, etc.), Aspirin or Naproxin (Aleve) during pregnancy may have an 80% increased risk of miscarriage.

The study was conducted at Kaiser Permanente in the San Francisco Bay Area and showed that women who took these painkillers around the time of conception experienced miscarriage 35% of the time, a marked increase. And if that news isn't bad enough, most of the women who took the medication for more than a week lost their babies, having an 810% increased risk or 52% of those pregnancies resulted in miscarriage.

It's important for your wife to talk to her midwife or doctor to see what they recommend. And as I understand it, this changes after giving birth, as I've heard that doctors want mums to take Advil after giving birth, and not Tylenol, but again, checking with your health practitioner is best.

Please let me know if you found any of this helpful or have any further questions.

Here's a demonstration of what craniosacral therapy looks like on an adult. Everyone in our family has had craniosacral therapy for various things and it is our therapy of choice for reducing pain in all parts of the body.

I also wanted to suggest that you read Headaches During Pregnancy There is a lot of information in the article about treating and preventing headaches. Your wife may find some of it useful, in addition to all the incredible advice provided by Kate!